Can't Stop-Smoke

by Claudy Conn

  “Getting back to Vidal. He has a both a demon and warlock working for him,” Sharon interjected at this point. “You do know that?”

  “I met his demon friend,” I stuck in. “Not pretty.”

  Shags laughed. My Holy Grail’s eyes rebuked him and then turned to me, “You will never go out into the city without one of us with you. Understood”

  “I don’t take orders,” I answered.

  “Smoke,” he said looking right into my eyes. “It is for your safety that I ask you not to go out alone, day or night without one of us,” he amended.

  “Better,” I said and gave him a wink. I noted a reluctant twinkle in his bright blue eyes.

  Sharon chewed her lip. I watched Shags’ eyes land and stare at her mouth. Their eyes met and she smiled before she finally said, “I know the warlock working for Vidal. His name is Trusom. We used to be friendly. I never understood why he went to work for Vidal last year and I have not yet discovered the reason.”

  “I think,” Grail said, “That we need to find out what it is Vidal is holding over him.”

  “I know Trusom. He was always a decent sort,” Shags offered quietly. “I know a couple of shifters who knew him well. I can try and talk to them about him, learn more about his situation.”

  “Good, that is your job then, Shags. Find out what you can about Trusom,” Grail said and then looked away from all of us. I waited until he looked back and locked his gaze on me.

  “Ah,” I said, “This is where I come in.”

  “It is where we, you and I come in. We have a lead to follow,” Grail said.

  “A lead?” I questioned.

  “Yes, are you ready?”

  “I’m always ready,” I joked.

  “This is serious, Smoke. You have to take it seriously,” he said impatiently.

  I eyed him, “I am, I just react…differently than you.”

  “Do you baby?” he said so low, so intently that I looked right at him, challenging him to say more.

  He changed the subject and told all of us, “One of the witches I worked with this morning in arbitration gave me a clue regarding the Cumhachdach Hallow we are trying to find before Vidal does. It isn’t much of a clue, but it tells me that the artifact is not in Ireland as I had supposed. It is actually right here in New Orleans.”

  Okay, so it is in New Orleans, but we still have no idea what it looks like, what it is made of, what it smells like, what…” I objected.

  “Yes, yes,” he interrupted me. “I get the picture. We do know one thing—it is a living thing. Fae artifacts evolve with time. The Dark King put his DNA into some of his favorite Hallows and I am told this particular Hallow has a song.” Grail looked right at me. “I am hoping the Hallow will sing to you when you get near.”

  “How do we get near? Walk the streets aimlessly waiting to hear a song?” I shook my head, “That’s crazy.”

  He sighed resignedly, “Yes, it is. My witch friend who is an immortal and has been around a very long time, said that she once thought she heard the river sing, but as she got closer, it stopped. She thinks we should walk the river’s edge.” He shrugged. “It is a long shot but the only one we have.”

  “Water!” I jumped to my feet. “Yes. Water. I get the sense it is surrounded by water when I think the word artifact. I thought the other day I heard something whisper, water and that wasn’t the first time. And you say…the Hallow sings a song?”

  “Indeed, and I believe if you get close…it will call to you. It is my belief it wants to be returned home.”

  I rubbed my hands together, “Maybe this Hallow, what did you call it, Cumhachdach, if we rescue it, will help me free my father when we return it…home. Where is home to the Fae?”

  “The Isle of Tir,” Grail said and put his finger to my chin. “Smoke, we will free your father. I promise you that.”

  “Sooner than later,” I answered softly.

  “As soon as possible, how is that?”

  “Fair enough, I suppose,” and suddenly I was in his arms and we were traveling in his black cloud.

  We stepped out along the docks of the Mississippi River not far from Grail’s club. I looked at him and said, “Now what?”

  “We walk along the river and become connected with its pulse, with the life pulsating in the river,” he said and dropped a light kiss on my mouth.

  “How do we connect like that?”

  “Go into your mind, Smoke…find that place where you, earth, wind, fire and water are one,” he said as though it was the easiest thing in the world to do.

  I did what he asked, closing my eyes and just as I began to realize what he was talking about, all hell broke loose!

  ~ Nine ~

  A DEMON, THE SAME ONE who had abducted me appeared at Grail’s back. I screamed, more from being startled than fear.

  At that same moment, I saw Mr. Rabid vampire! He was coming at me with some speed. We connected or rather, he knocked me off my feet.

  He was on me, ready to bite and tear out my throat, when I froze him in place with magic, and shoved him off.

  I hurried to my feet in time to witness the demon attacking Grail, Ninja style, and with what appeared to be his full force of magic, hit after hit.

  I was momentarily stunned and watched as Grail recovered from the surprise hit and returned physical and magical blow for blow.

  The demon shot into the air and when he landed, his fingers became black tentacles which surrounded Grail and bound him in place.

  I tried to figure out a way to break the demon’s tentacle hold on Grail when all at once, Mr. Rabid broke free from the magic and came at me again.

  “Oh for goodness sake!” I was exasperated and put my hand at my back. A stake was what I needed, and a second later it was in my hand.

  Just in time, I brought it up as he rushed me and I staked him in the heart.

  He exploded into flame and I was staring at a pile of ash when all at once, I was pushed from behind and tripped as I fell forward, nearly falling. I caught myself only to feel an incredible force, like a magnet pulling me backwards. I looked over my shoulder as the tornado like wind of potent magic had me in its folds.

  “Smoke!” I heard Grail’s voice scream as he broke through the demon’s tentacles. Even as I saw him rush towards me, his arms outstretched…I knew I was trapped. Damn, I was in serious trouble.

  It was a portal. I had been pushed into the mouth of a portal!

  Too late, I thought to call on my own magical power and break away from that magnet yanking me inside the portal’s depths.

  As I struggled to keep my balance I saw a stranger jump in and take hold of my shoulders.

  I don’t know how I knew who he was, but I did. Here was the Warlock Trusom. He held onto me inside the black hold sucking me deeper and deeper and though I pushed him off as hard as I could, he didn’t let go.

  “Don’t move…don’t fight it, and you will have a better landing,” he said in my ear.

  “Fuck you!” I answered and broke away from him only to be bounced off the walls of the black hole I was caught up in.

  Damn, but, I was traveling through a portal I was sure was stronger than the last one that had taken me to Vidal.

  Damn, I had to find a way to make and break these things once and for always!

  I landed with a thud on my rump. The warlock landed on his feet beside me, bent and pulled me up roughly. “I warned you,” he said.

  “I repeat,” I answered. “Fuck you.” So saying I thought how nice it would be to be in my home. “Home,” I said out loud and heard the warlock shout out and grab my hand. Holy good gosh, there I was, stepping through air and space right into my living room with the warlock holding on to me.

  It dawned on me. I can shift like a Fae. Also, next time I want to shift, I have to make certain no one grabs hold of me. Apparently they get shifted as well.

  It also dawned on me that if I could shift like a Fae, I could shift into my father’s prison and rescue him…
as soon as I figured out how to remove his magical shackles.

  I was standing on the pretty rug by my sofa in my home. Now, how to get rid of Trusom and get to…

  Never finished the thought as Mr. Warlock pulled something out of his black satin coat and threw that something over me. It was a net…made of gold. No sooner had he thrown it over my head and body, but he yanked me roughly to the ground and tied my ankles with what looked like more of the gold threading.

  I struggled but there was no breaking the golden net. I tried to reach the gold thread-like rope at my ankles, but couldn’t quite bend enough inside the net.

  “Once I knew what you were, I found what I needed. Danu Dust. You see, I already owned a piece of a Golden Wiele I found while touring the Fairy Mounds. The Danu Dust allowed me to enlarge the piece of golden net I already had. I thought it might come in handy one day. Apparently, I was right,” he said softly without a smirk and in fact, he looked sad, I thought. “The Golden Wiele was designed to hold and detain wayward Fae and after watching you, I had come to believe you might be part Fae,” the warlock explained. “I am, Trusom and you would do well to try and cooperate. Vidal…can be ruthless.”

  I wasn’t going to speak. Why give him any information? The gold netting was tightly wrapped around me so that I couldn’t do much more than study him. He was a tall, lean man with white hair, white eyebrows and soft grey eyes. He wore a long black silk coat, which I thought odd, since it was like 85 degrees outside. He wasn’t particularly pretty or handsome and yet, his looks were certainly arresting…interesting.

  “Why are you working with Vidal?” I finally asked.

  “Direct, aren’t you?”

  “Why?” I repeated.

  “I have no choice,” he said quietly.

  “We always have a choice. You have not chosen wisely.”

  He gave me a hard look, “What do you know about it? Nothing.”

  “Right, yet, here I am, knowing nothing, right in the middle of it all,” I snapped. “So tell me, where is he—your boss, Vidal?” I felt a fool blustering while all tied in place and on my back on the hard floor.

  “He is somewhere else. I am to bring you there…soon,” Trusom said gravely.

  “You don’t want to, do you?” I tested the waters.

  “What I want…has nothing to do with what I will do.” He looked away and then looked at me, “You are a shiny young creature with potential. He will break you to get what he wants. Why would I want that?”

  “Then why are you delivering me to him?” I frowned up at him and gave up the struggle with the Golden Wiele. It wasn’t giving an inch. I was trapped and at the moment I had no way out. I had immediately tried to escape the netting with my own brand of magic, but whatever the Golden Wiele was, it inhibited my magic from working at all.

  “As I said, I have no choice,” Trusom walked away and stood by the window overlooking my little garden at the back of my home.

  It was right at that moment, I got a whiff of burning campfire wood and sage, familiar, masculine and so very welcome. I smiled to myself. I didn’t know how he had found me and the how didn’t matter. He had found me. He had come. My Holy Grail had come for me and there wasn’t a warlock or vampire that could successfully stand up to him. A fact I was sure of.

  The black cloud simultaneous arrived with the scent and my body tensed with expectation as I watched him step out of his traveling fog. Here was help and when he freed me, I was going to seriously kick some warlock ass for trussing me up like he had.

  With a flick of his pointer finger, the Golden Wiele was untied at my ankles as he stood in front of me and faced the warlock.

  He might be kicking ass before I had the chance.

  I scrambled out of the netting which I then angrily kicked away.

  Grail and the warlock had confronted each other. I watched, waiting for a rumble of extravagant proportions.

  I was sadly disappointed as Grail very calmly told Trusom, “I expected better from you.”

  “Did you?” Trusom said grimly.

  Grail’s voice was as solemn as his expression, “But, in case it isn’t clear, let me make it so. Smoke McGuire…is mine. Harm her, cause her discomfort ever again and our present situation will become personal and I will take it out of your hide. Understood?”

  “It is not my wish to hurt your…lady, in any way,” Trusom inclined his head. “I told her and now I am telling you, I don’t have a choice in this matter.”

  My Holy Grail pulled me onto his hip and then looked back at the warlock, “You have been warned.”

  Before I could object I realized we were leaving. I realized then that before we left I needed to get a hold of the Golden Wiele. Before I could spell it into my hands with a thought, Trusom had it in his hold.

  I hadn’t thought of it in time. Too late—such ugly words. Trusom had already snatched it and vanished into his waiting portal.

  “Damn, double damn,” I bit my lip and glared at Grail. “I wanted to smack him myself and I wanted that net!”

  “No worries,” he whispered as he still had me against his hip and bent to brush his lips against mine. He smiled after he lightly kissed me and said, “You’ll have both those wants satisfied, very soon.”

  His black cloud surrounded us and swoosh, off we went. When we stepped out it was into his club office.

  I eyed him happily, “I suppose I should swoon and call you my hero…”

  “But? I know there is ‘a but’ in there,” he said and grinned.

  “Yeah, there kinda is. I want to know how you found me,” I asked more than a little curious. Could he always find me? What if I didn’t want to be found?

  “I tracked you with magic,” he said simply.

  I frowned, “What? What do you mean? How could you do that?”

  “I installed the equivalent of a tracking chip…only it is more than a chip actually. Call it a magical link between us. I can find you anywhere with the link.”

  My mouth dropped as rage built up in me, “You mean you put a chip in me? Like a dog? How dare you!” I shoved him hard and he went flying across the room and slammed into one wall.

  He growled but did and said nothing. He just stood there glaring at me.

  “A chip? A tracking device?” I shouted, “You put it inside of me…where? In my head? When?”

  “Yes, in your head, while you were sleeping,” he said angrily. “And you are welcome. I knew they would try to get their hands on you, and they did. I was only able to save you from Vidal…”

  “Save me from Vidal? How do you know I wouldn’t have been able to save myself? How dare you put a chip in me without asking my permission?”

  “It isn’t a chip, baby,” he said and sighed. “It is more like a mind-link.”

  “Is it?” I stomped to face him up close. I poked his hard chest. “You put a mind link inside my head without either asking or even telling me…how is that okay?” I wagged a finger and snapped. “Don’t speak. Is it one way or can I track you as well?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “Well?” I demanded.

  “You ordered me not to speak,” he said and I saw the twinkle in his eyes.

  I poked his chest again, “Speak now.”

  “Well…” he hedged.

  “Yes, or no? Can I track you as well?”

  “Yes, if you learn how to work with the link. Eventually…our link will allow us to speak to one another, but you have to be open to it for it to work,” he explained reluctantly.

  “You don’t want me to know how. You don’t want me to track you, do you?” I shot back.

  He took my shoulders, “Smoke, stop…listen baby…I found you before Vidal got to you. That was the result of what I did. You wouldn’t have been able to escape the Golden Wiele and Vidal would have…hurt you.”

  The logic of this diverted my anger for a moment, but only a moment. “Even so, you should have asked. Now, take the link out.”

  “No,” he said angr
ily.

  “I’ll get it out. Wait and see…I’ll find a way to…”

  “Stop, baby, stop. When the danger is past. When you have all your skills at their very peak, if you learn how to find me, speak to me through the link and you still want the link between us severed, I will do so. Compromise with me,” he said quietly.

  The link between us severed? I didn’t like the sound of that and how it made me feel. I didn’t want anything severed between us. What I did want was the ability to track him as well. It was my turn to hedge. I eyed him. “I need to think about this.”

  “What I don’t understand is why Trusom would abduct an innocent and he must see that in the world of magic…even vampirism you are more innocent than not.” Grail said as much to himself as to me. “Why would he hand you over to Vidal who as far back as I can remember, Trusom has despised?”

  I shook my head. “He was conflicted. I could see that,” I answered distracted by this for the moment. “He said he had no choice. Maybe Shags will turn up an answer on that, but…this link thing…we will need to talk more about that.”

  The door burst open and Shags stood there, his face aglow, “I know why Trusom is helping Vidal.”

  “Do you? Damn, by all that is dark, Shags, you are always dependable, my friend,” Grail said softly.

  Shags stood tall, apparently well pleased by this and then hurriedly said, “I found Trusom’s sister. She is a Witch of the Light and when I told her you wanted to help her brother, she spilled everything.” Shags sat on a nearby chair and paused a moment for that to sink in. Satisfied that he had our attention, he went on, “Vidal has Trusom’s mate locked up somewhere he can’t find her. Trusom has tried everything in his bag of tricks to locate her but can’t. Grail, you will never credit it, but Trusom’s mate is a shifter…a panther shifter.”